Alcohol degrades performance on complex skilled tasks by affecting decision processes and motor responses. These effects have reaction time, but these tasks are very complex, involving sensory input, a great deal of cortical processing and complex motor responses. The saccadic oculomotor system provides a simpler model for testing the effects of alcohol, since stimulus, processing and output systems may be thought of as brainstem functions. Becker and Jurgens (1979) have proposed a model of oculomotor function in which stimulus information is input to a decision element (should the eye move right or left the eliminate the error?), then to a size computation element (how large should the eye movement be?), and then to the oculomotor nuclei to generate an appropriate pulse/step of neural firing to move and hold the eye in the new position. It is proposed to use this model in conjunction with the concepts of Information Theory to quantify effects of alcohol on the rate of information processing at each stage of the Becker and Jurgens model for the generation of a saccadic eye movement. The motor response will also be characterized in terms of an information model, thus permitting an assessment of decision processes, size computation and motor response in the same units. Sensitive indicators of the effects of alcohol will be given by these techniques, since the elements of the system are most effected by alcohol will be isolated. Tasks as diverse as pursuit tracking and linguistic skills have been quantified in terms of information transmission. If such a characterization is possible in the oculomotor system, it is likely that the concept can be extended to more complex systems, thus allowing prediction of alcohol-induced deficits in tasks where the information processing load is known or can be estimated.